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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Editorial:
Sky hasn't fallen over water allotment reduction<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Times New Roman","serif"'>THE HERALD'S VIEW<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Monterey County Herald<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Posted: 06/26/2010
01:31:17 AM PDT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Updated: 06/26/2010
01:31:17 AM PDT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span lang=EN-ZW
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Times New Roman","serif"'>Let's return for a moment to last spring, when doom
and gloom descended on the San Joaquin Valley in the form of water-allotment
reductions that, we were told, would bankrupt the farmers, idle the workers and
turn the region into a modern dust bowl. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Perhaps
you remember when TV commentator Sean Hannity, with ample PR help from the huge
Westlands Water District, went on the air with a series of heart-tugging
stories about how farms and jobs were being lost because wrongheaded
environmentalists and federal officials were diverting "valley" water
to protect insignificant smelt and salmon. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In
western Fresno County, the bedraggled farm town of Mendota provided the perfect
backdrop for photo opportunities featuring busloads of sad-eyed field workers
supposedly thrown out of work by the likes of the Sierra Club. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Unfortunately
for the recreational and commercial fishing industries and others with an
interest in keeping the environment in balance, Hannity and other easily misled
news operations largely missed the story about the dramatic decline in the
salmon population caused, largely, by San Joaquin Delta pumping schedules that
traditionally favored field crops over fish. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Well,
guess what. Farm income did slip last year in Fresno County. By 75 percent?
Fifty percent? <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Try
4.5 percent. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The
county-by-county annual crop reports came out this week, and Fresno County
retained its title as the king of California agriculture, producing $5.4billion
in receipts. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Times New Roman","serif"'>"I don't know how ag did it, but they did
it," said Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner Carol Hafner. "This
is our third year of more than $5billion in value." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It
really is not a mystery. The growers did it by relying on water allotments that
had been hoarded, by turning on their own pumps and by raising prices. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It is
significant that the neighboring counties of Kings and Tulare saw much sharper
declines in farm income, 25percent and 19percent, respectively, but not because
of lost irrigation water. Dairy is a larger factor in those counties, and
wholesale milk prices plunged in 2009. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>To be
fair, it certainly was a tough year for Fresno County agriculture. A small
portion of the federally subsidized water was indeed lost to the fisheries, so
farmers scrambled to change crops and planting patterns. Some fields were taken
out of production in order to protect recent large investments in tree crops,
including big water users such as citrus, almonds and pistachios. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Times
certainly were tough in dusty Mendota. Times have always been tough in Mendota.
Almost assuredly, the income of Fresno County farmworkers dropped more than the
5.4percent overall decline in farm income. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-ZW style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Times New Roman","serif"'>But times are tougher yet along the docks and
harbors of California, where the salmon harvest has been wiped out by a water
delivery system dominated by ag interests aided and abetted by Hannity and
others who wouldn't want the facts to get in the way of a sad story.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land/fax</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
mobile</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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